Wow dude I’m glad your timing cover didnt turn into a bacon strip with all the heat from filling the hole haha
A very condensed overview of installing the rear timing cover yesterday. One of the 6 internal bolts that come down through the head was stripped, and of course I didn’t know until I was going through the torque sequence. I added some JB weld to the threads, torqued it and let it be. Not the most favorable solution but should be fine. Worse case, timing goes on this motor and I need to pull the cover off, I can map gas it and impact it out.
I’m tightening up the cam phasers this weekend and throwing on the upper timing covers. Following that will be throwing ancillaries back on the block and a carbon clean. I scored a stage 3+ clutch off a turbo B7 RS4 for when I mate up the 0A3 trans.
This high mile Rs5 came up locally that made me consider buying and pausing this project, but I think I would get bored and tear it apart anyway. Tempting though for 13k
Also got to show off the avant all stock at the New England Dustoff in Thompson, CT. Hopefully I can come back next year in the same car with a different powerplant.
Been enjoying driving this B5 as is, the 2.8 is slow but stout! About 100 miles left till I’m due for an oil change…so I’ll probably pull the motor then =]
Painted the valve covers. I 3d Printed some caps for the torx bolt heads which saved me loads of time masking them off. This color is not at all what I was going for. Ugly but It’ll do through the build process. I’ll color match to the car when it actually runs.
I picked up an RS4 stage2+ clutch and flywheel combo. ARP flywheel bolts I ordered were too short so I ended up sourcing some OEM 43mm long flywheel bolts. However the heads are too wide and intersect with the 10 bolt pattern. You can see in the pic below I have shaved a few down, and the overlapping ones are shown in the back. Im chucking the bolt up in a drill then angle grinding material off, trying to keep the heat low. These bolts are high grade so I don’t have concerns for their future (clutch dumps for days).
Had a major house flood so the garage has turned into a refugee area. Next update should include some transmission case welding, an 0A3 mated to a V10, and maybe a pulled 2.8
All 10 flywheel bolts are now flush!
Took a shot at saving this 0A3’s life and welding the bell housing back together. This cast aluminum is nasty stuff to weld, did the best I could, should hold together just fine with the bolts to the engine block but some additional filler rod doesnt hurt.
Currently 3d printing a clutch alignment tool so my powertrain can become one!
Printed a few options to get the spacing right on the 23 splines, version 2 is perfect
Have a buyer for the avant’s drivetrain so I’ll be starting on that this weekend 
Hit an issue where the 0a3 was not sitting flush over the new clutch and flywheel setup. With an inspection camera I discovered the input shaft was just barely bottoming out, causing a 2-3mm space. After some consulting with Martin he told me he removed the spacer behind the flywheel. That gave just enough room to sit flush. I had to cut down my flywheel bolts, but hurtle is now overcome.
Added some more rod to the aluminum case repair. Cast aluminum isnt the best stuff to work with, but this seems to be a functional repair.
Swapped out the transmission alignment sleeves with some deeper ones I had laying around. Should make life a little easier with using the 5.5mm spacer.
And last update for now is getting the crank position sensor hole and starter lined up. Had to grind down a little bit of the starter casting, but fits up well! Its part number 079911023D from a B6/7 S4.
Drivetrain pulled, officially a roller now.
Next steps, clean out bay, pull ancillaries. Carbon clean the v10, then test fit!
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Well I lied. The next step is CAD! Got a 3d scanner for “work” and this significantly helps the progress along. I have a desk job in Engineering, so I am proficient and it only makes sense to use that skill for my personal project.
Next scans are the powertrain and headers to see how much cutting will be involved.
Fun seeing this come along.
I scanned enough to get 2 and a half burning questions answered.
1-Will it fit? Yes
2- Will there be cutting? Yes
2.5- How much cutting? Not as much as I had anticipated
Framerails are less than 50% interference, cutting, boxing and adding some bracing would do the trick
Obvious header modifying after the collector. Will be a squeeze around axles.
The framerail to trans tunnel area may require modification. It looks this way on both sides. Hmm
This is about 15 scans roughly stitched together so tolerances are loose. But it gives me a much greater understanding of how things fit.